So here I am--summer before my Junior year of college, and spending my first summer away from New Jersey. This blog will chronicle my summer as well as my new project: The Recycle, Reuse, Redesign Project where I try to redesign the old until it looks new!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

NJ Education Battle Continues with Student Walk-Outs

I'm insanely proud of the thousands of New Jersey students who participated in the mass walk-outs yesterday across the state! Students left their classrooms to chant against budget cuts and hold picket signs and engage in the political atmosphere of the state.

The biggest demonstration was apparently in Newark, where thousands of students marched to city hall through the streets.

I haven't heard of any protest like this involving high school students happening in years, and it's great to see that New Jersey's students give a shit about what's going on involving their education.

On that note, I'm pretty sure my generation has been called lazy and apathetic and a bunch of other nasty words. I think this is a great example of how we can be motivated and political, and I wish governor Chris Christie would feel the same. If he doesn't feel guilty about what he's doing from seeing the teacher's perspective, he should certainly feel guilty for what he's doing from the student's perspective.

Michael Drewniak, the governor’s press secretary, released a statement on Tuesday saying that students belonged in the classroom. “It is also our firm hope that the students were motivated by youthful rebellion or spring fever,” Mr. Drewniak said, “and not by encouragement from any one-sided view of the current budget crisis in New Jersey.”

I think that it's really despicable that thousands of students take part in a protest and the governor says it's because of spring fever. New Jersey's high school and college students want a good education and it should be our state's responsibility to give it to them when they are asking for it, not tell them that they're just being youthful rebels.

When thousands of students march into the streets chanting about how they don't want their teachers to be let go, it's NOT because they just wanted to play outside.

*If anyone is looking for ways to help out with the grassroots movements happening around the education cuts, this Facebook group is really a great place to start.*